, 1887-04-14
BEHIND THE DOGS.
WINTER TRAVEL ON LAKE WIN
NEPEG.
Natives" Indians and Canadians-Oueer
Life in the BackwoOds of Manitoba.
Fish, Furs and Fun-Forty Dogs. Below
Zero and Dogs for "Comforters."
Especial Correspondence

Especial Correspondence
BAD THROAT RIVER, Man, Feb. "a.
Bring forth the dogs! The dogs we're brought;
IN truth, they were noble breed:
Half wolf and half true st. Bernard,
And formed for tOug'lness as for speed.
And this is as far as the Mazeppian COM
parisOn viii apply; for my dogs are not wild
as the wild deer, and untaught." On the con-
trary, they are as tiociie as their st. Bernard
mother. though almost as enduring as their
wolf father. And this is the fayorIte cross
with white men, while the Indians use a
three-quarter wolf, usually called a 'huslly"-
merely the Scotch and Cree way of pro-
nouncing '-Eshic," an abbreviation of Esqui-
maux The half blood has all the social traits
of the dog, and in case of failure of supplies
will stay by and endure hunger with a man;
but in the "husky" hunger brings out the
wolf nature little too strong, and
unless carefully watched the team is
liable to eat their driver. My four dogs
were selected for me by the Hudson Bay
company's factor at Fort Alexander, and are
nice fellows indeed-Iarge and vigorous,
bright gray brown in color, and willing to 90
at the word without the touch of that cruel
whip these drivers carry. Ny sled is simply
a rude toboggan, two feet wide, with
box bed six or eight inches high. If l want
to sit up | must bunch the robes little be-
hind my back, but | usually prefer to recline
with my face from the wind. Back of the
box the slide extends some two feet; in the
end of it is an iron staple, to which a stout
strap IS attached and the driver holds to that
as he runs behind or stands on the fiat for a
rest where the road is favorable. And with
these simple arrangements l am guaranteed
progress of forty miles day anyhow, though
the team can be pressed to seventy in an
emergency **#
Duncan McDiarmid, my driver, is a
splendid specimen of his class-the Scotch
Indian of Manitoba. They reject the term
half breed, considering it a vulgar and depre-
ciating phrase; so they call themselves and
desire to be called natives-a word which al
WAYS implies some Indian blood. A pure
white native is called q Canadian; and if one
wishes to emphasize the fact of French de-
scent. that word is added. But as the Scotch
have been i'll British America for PIT years,
and new comers every year marry the daugh-
ters of old residents among the Indians
there are now many thousand natives in
whom the Indian blood Is barely or not at all
perceptible. Indeed, cannot but think that
Scotch features overcome the Indian face
much more successfully than do the
French; and as nearly all the Hudson
Bay company's men came from north Scot
communities of Indians and natives, among
whom the Gaelic is spoken as fiuently as in
the highlands of Scotland, and to the best
class of these ruddy, white natives my driver
and friend Duncan McDiarmid belongs. For
his services-sled and four doGs-I pay 81
day; we join i'll provisions and he feeds his
dogs on fisll-a small bait" at noon, all they
can eat at night and nothing in the morning,
as they travel better without it. Each dog is
good for eighty pounds, draUght; and as we
take only few pounds of tea, sugar and
"biscuibn (English, 'ye know" for crackers,
We are running light indeed for four dogs
All set, and of from Fort Alexander just
as the bright winter sun showed among the
trees, to the accompaniment of loud cheer
from all the white dark and brown mixed
population of the post; then down the Win
uipeg river three miles or more northwest,
To where Il G.o9,ieus into the lake. Mercury
ONLY % degS. below zero, light wind from the
southwest and . SNOW cloud rising from that
quarter. Il was exhiarating indeed. The
rcd blood danced through my veins and
rlCyycd IN nav face as the four dogs whirIe,i
me along al she rate Of seven or eight miles
an hour. Ecuching the lake, we bore due
north, = one si.He directly under the bank,
at an0tLec FAR ont, IS the variation Of cove
and L,al.qnd determined This was an
HCsIE-tfBc E.tttl Tie WING iitii TIE south
west had risen almost to u gale, sweeping the
poHtlery snow before it i'll binding white
clouds; 50 / turned on my right side and en-
loved the scenery to the north and east. In
the other direction do not care to see it till
the wind changes.
H*x
All the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg is
bold and rocky, rs all the western shore is low
and swampy; for this lake and basin, with the
great valley of Red river, form a gap be-
tween two geological formations. East of
them is a great rocky and wooded wilderness
platsau-ail that remains of that Iaureutian
chain which extended from Lake Superior to
or near the Arctic ocean. What ygaSa noun
tain of pIutonian rock is now scattered in
sand, gravel, powders and "niggcrhea,is" all
the way down to latitude IS degs. On the
other side of valley and basin rise a few strata
of Devonian rock, and beyond that, westward
is tie carboniferoJ.s.
st noon we halted an hour at Black river
some twenty miles from our starting place
As large stream here enters tue lake from
the wilderness, there is fine fishing, and by
natural consequence neat Indian village
| the houses of hewed pines and pOplars, very
pleasant to the sight and very warm and
| com sfious. The big man of the place made
| Us welcome to his big living room, while the
| dogs took a rest and a fish each in the big
shed. was particularly struck by the size
/ and comfortable finish of the ROOMS; as the
| trees can lie had of any length from twenty
! to eighty feet, one can have as rUoiny Il log
| house as he desires.
! These Indians are SaultcauX pronounced
| Sootocs), 'peopie from the f5ault," as they
came among the Crees from east of Lake
| Huron about a century ago They served up
! some delicious broiied white fish only an hour
+ or so from Under the ice, and, with our own
I tea, sugar and biscuit, we had feast
Our afternoon run of twenty miles brought
us to this place, where an Iceiander, Sir.
JonasseI, has lately erected a sly l,Iiil, and
there IS quite village Of Indians and natives.
For lodging place We We're given the outer
room or shed, close enough but without fire.
/ Filing buffalo robes and blankets on the pine
floor, removing only our boots and overcoats